earnest money and security when buying a house in Vancouver

In the Canadian system of buying houses, your offer is binding once accepted. You've bought the house. It's a few months until keys are exchanged and you move in, but the deal is done. You don't "protect your earnest money" -- it's not really yours any more. You've made a partial payment (often called a downpayment) towards the deal that is done and is 100% going to happen. (Once the conditions are off, including the condition on getting financing. These typically come off within days of the offer.)

There is perhaps a small chance you will have your mortgage denied between now and closing. If you were to lose your job, fail to find another, and tell the bank you were unemployed then they might withdraw the financing. This worry would be a reason not to make an offer on a house right now, not a reason to try not to make a solid downpayment on it.

You imagine yourself in a pickle if you have to cancel the deal and don't get your downpayment back. But imagine the sellers: suddenly they own (and have to pay for) two houses. They aren't getting the other 95% of the house price from your bank -- which they would be using to pay most of the price of their next house -- and it's possible their deal for that next house will collapse, costing them their downpayment on that deal. The larger your downpayment, the smaller the chance you will actually walk away. Plus, the sellers can use that money to help deal with the real costs to them of you deciding to cancel a deal that was made and settled months earlier.

The only way to be sure your downpayment is "safe" is to close the deal and move into the house. It's not money you can expect to get back if your actions after the conditions come off cause the deal to collapse. You may not feel it's "your fault" if the bank changes their mind on the mortgage, but it sure isn't the seller's fault.

I can't comment on the amount of the earnest money deposit. I am in the US and it has been years since I bought my last house.

The purpose of the EM is to convince the seller to remove the house from the market. They have some confidence that if the potential buyer isn't serious there is hope of getting compensation for the delayed sale when they have to put it back on the market.

When is the best time to make the deposit (It was supposed to be 7 days from the day of accepted offer) but i feel it's too soon if closing is not until next 2 months. What do you think it should be ?

Make the deposit when the contract tells you to make the deposit. If you don't make the deposit the contract terms haven't been met. The seller will not be expected to remove the house from the market until they get confirmation the money has been deposited into the specified escrow account.

Time from offer to settlement varies depending on the local market, time of year, and the economy. Your mortgage application is competing with people refinancing their mortgages.

Don't count on being able to get your money back if the mortgage falls through. The terms of the contract will specify who gets the funds if the deal doesn't take place. Especially don't expect that you can get the money back if your do something blatant as was suggested in one of the comments.

Your mortgage application is risky for a couple of reasons: the job change and the lack of savings. If the EM deposit will exhaust most of your savings then your margin for error regarding affordability is near zero. Expect that they will check you employment and bank balance information just before they fund the mortgage.

How do buyers protect their earnest money as it's a pretty big number. I don't see how do people take any sort of risk with it. Am I doing something wrong here?

Buyers protect themselves by doing everything they can to make sure that the house is affordable and the mortgage will be approved. If getting a mortgage now is risky because you will still be in the probation period, then maybe the answer is to wait until the job is more secure.